her heel and strutted away, mumbling something about it always being the hot ones.
“Quinn, that skirted a very thin line,” Carly said as she reached for her phone, then thought better of it and began reorganizing the table. Reading the texts would be her reward after the table was organized.
“I’m sorry, but she looked like she was ready to give him a handy right here at the table,” Quinn said.
Cutter scoffed. “And you screwed that up for me, didn’t you?”
“I probably saved you from an STD.” Quinn set the sample tray down and said, “Have some scruples.”
Carly retrieved a package of napkins from beneath the table, chuckling to herself. She should probably stop this line of banter, but there were no customers in earshot, and she was having too much fun watching the show.
Cutter looked like he was chewing on nails as he said, “I have more scruples than you can imagine.”
“I said scruples, not Oodles of Noodles.” Quinn giggled and popped a piece of fudge into her mouth.
He scowled. “Paybacks are hell, tater tot.”
“Tater tot?” Carly arched a brow.
He eyed Quinn and said, “You know, a little crunchy on the outside, succulent on the inside.”
Quinn’s eyes narrowed despite the crimson staining her cheeks.
Whoa. They put Randi and Ford to shame. “Thanks for the help, Cutter,” Carly said. “Are you taking off?”
His gaze never left Quinn’s as he said, “I think I’ll stick around for a while.”
“Great. How about you two harness all that pent-up energy and see who can sell more chocolate? I’m heading inside to help Birdie.” Reward time! She pulled her phone from her pocket on the way inside.
“Carly?” Birdie called out from behind the counter. “Would you mind grabbing another tray of Treasure Hunter Fudge?”
“Sure.” She was thrilled that their new creation was selling so well. The cereal bars were doing well, too. She’d dipped them in different flavors of chocolate, and she’d eaten one dipped in white chocolate for breakfast.
She headed into the kitchen as she opened Zev’s texts and stopped cold, riveted to the image of Zev underwater, eyes dancing with joy. He was holding a number of horseshoe-shaped metal bracelets with enlarged finial ends. Her pulse skyrocketed as she looked through the pictures he’d texted. There was one of him pointing to the ocean floor, which was littered with more bracelets, and several others of only the bracelets. She wondered if they were manillas, horseshoe-shaped bracelets and armlets used as a form of currency for bartering in West Africa. They were usually made from bronze or copper and sometimes used in the slave trade, as they would have been with Clegg’s ship.
She scoured the pictures, zooming in to see the treasures more clearly, taking in their pitted surfaces and the underwater identification tags placed in the artifacts. She mentally ran through the process of identifying and recording artifacts and locations, which were captured on film and on a grid of the site to help with the recovery efforts and so future generations could see exactly where each of the artifacts were found. Oh, how she wished she were there! Happy tears welled in her eyes, and she reached for the counter to combat her shaky legs.
Her phone rang, startling her. Zev’s picture appeared with the FaceTime call. She answered quickly. “Are they manillas?” she asked at the same time Zev said, “Baby!”
Zev laughed and flicked his chin, sending his wet hair out of his eyes. “They’ve got to be, and there are hundreds of them down here. Aw, Carls! I wish you were here. We were using the dredge pump, about eight inches down when we hit them…”
He described every detail, and once again she felt like she’d been right there with him when he’d found them.
Only she hadn’t been.
Sadness pooled inside her, but she forced her happiness for Zev to rise above it.
His wet hair fell forward again, and he pushed it out of his face in the same fashion he had when he was a kid, as if his hair had some nerve getting in his way. “We still don’t have anything positively identifying what we’ve found as coming from the Pride, but—”
“Zev! They’ve found something!” Randi hollered.
“I’ve got to go, babe. I love y—wait! How’s the festival?”
“Zev!” Randi shouted again.
Zev looked perched to bolt, and yet he still waited for her to answer. This man was not a pit stop in her life. She wanted all of his dreams to come true, just as she knew he wanted hers to.